9 Great Wellness Books to read this year

Michael Massey | February 21, 2017

Whether you are a newbie to exploring wellness, or well experienced in the areas of yoga, nutrition, meditation, spirituality and balance… there is always opportunity to deepen your knowledge and understanding.

Here are a handful of titles that members or our Wellness Crew have read or are in the process of reading now.

1. Run The World

My 3,500 Mile Journey Through The Running Cultures Around The Globe
From elite marathoner and Olympic hopeful Becky Wade comes the story of her year-long exploration of diverse global running communities from England to Ethiopia—9 countries, 72 host families, and over 3,500 miles of running—investigating unique cultural approaches to the sport and revealing the secrets to the success of runners all over the world.

Fresh off a successful collegiate running career—with multiple NCAA All-American honors and two Olympic Trials qualifying marks to her name—Becky Wade was no stranger to international competition. But after years spent safely sticking to the training methods she knew, Becky was curious about how her counterparts in other countries approached the sport to which she’d dedicated over half of her life. So in 2012, as a recipient of the Watson Fellowship, she packed four pairs of running shoes, cleared her schedule for the year, and took off on a journey to infiltrate diverse running communities around the world. What she encountered far exceeded her expectations and changed her outlook into the sport she loved.

Over the next twelve months—visiting 9 countries with unique and storied running histories, logging over 3,500 miles running over trails, tracks, sidewalks, and dirt roads—Becky explored the varied approaches of runners across the globe. Whether riding shotgun around the streets of London with Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt, climbing for an hour at daybreak to the top of Ethiopia’s Mount Entoto just to start her daily run, or getting lost jogging through the bustling streets of Tokyo, Becky’s unexpected adventures, keen insights, and landscape descriptions take the reader into the heartbeat of distance running around the world.

2. The Telomere Effect

A Revolutionary Approach To Living Younger, Healthier, Longer
Have you wondered why some sixty-year-olds look and feel like forty-year-olds and why some forty-year-olds look and feel like sixty-year-olds? While many factors contribute to aging and illness, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn discovered a biological indicator called telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, which protect our genetic heritage. Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel’s research shows that the length and health of one’s telomeres are a biological underpinning of the long-hypothesized mind-body connection. They and other scientists have found that changes we can make to our daily habits can protect our telomeres and increase our health spans (the number of years we remain healthy, active, and disease-free).

THE TELOMERE EFFECT reveals how Blackburn and Epel’s findings, together with research from colleagues around the world, cumulatively show that sleep quality, exercise, aspects of diet, and even certain chemicals profoundly affect our telomeres, and that chronic stress, negative thoughts, strained relationships, and even the wrong neighborhoods can eat away at them.

Drawing from this scientific body of knowledge, they share lists of foods and suggest amounts and types of exercise that are healthy for our telomeres, mind tricks you can use to protect yourself from stress, and information about how to protect your children against developing shorter telomeres, from pregnancy through adolescence. And they describe how we can improve our health spans at the community level, with neighborhoods characterized by trust, green spaces, and safe streets.

THE TELOMERE EFFECT will make you reassess how you live your life on a day-to-day basis. It is the first book to explain how we age at a cellular level and how we can make simple changes to keep our chromosomes and cells healthy, allowing us to stay disease-free longer and live more vital and meaningful lives.

3. Unshakeable

Your Financial Freedom Playbook
After interviewing fifty of the world’s greatest financial minds and penning the #1 New York Times bestseller Money: Master the Game, Tony Robbins returns with a step-by-step playbook, taking you on a journey to transform your financial life and accelerate your path to financial freedom. No matter your salary, your stage of life, or when you started, this book will provide the tools to help you achieve your financial goals more rapidly than you ever thought possible.

Robbins, who has coached more than fifty million people from 100 countries, is the world’s #1 life and business strategist. In this book, he teams up with Peter Mallouk, the only man in history to be ranked the #1 financial advisor in the US for three consecutive years by Barron’s. Together they reveal how to become unshakeable—someone who can not only maintain true peace of mind in a world of immense uncertainty, economic volatility, and unprecedented change, but who can profit from the fear that immobilizes so many.

In these pages, through plain English and inspiring stories, you’ll discover…

• How to put together a simple, actionable plan that will deliver true financial freedom.

• Strategies from the world’s top investors on how to protect yourself and your family and maximize profit from the inevitable crashes and corrections to come.

• How a few simple steps can add a decade or more of additional retirement income by discovering what your 401(k) provider doesn’t want you to know.

• The core four principles that most of the world’s greatest financial minds utilize so that you can maximize upside and minimize downside.

• The fastest way to put money back in your pocket: uncover the hidden fees and half truths of Wall Street—how the biggest firms keep you overpaying for underperformance.

• Master the mindset of true wealth and experience the fulfillment you deserve today.

4. Get Your Sh*t Together:

How to Stop Worrying About What You Should Do So You Can Finish What You Need to Do and Start Doing What You Want to Do (A No F*cks Given Guide)

The no-f*cks-given, no-holds-barred guide to living your best life
Ever find yourself stuck at the office-or even just glued to the couch-when you really want to get out (for once), get to the gym (at last), and get started on that “someday” project you’re always putting off? It’s time to get your sh*t together.

In The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck, “anti-guru” Sarah Knight introduced readers to the joys of mental de-cluttering. This book takes you one step further–organizing the f*cks you want and need to give, and cutting through the bullsh*t cycle of self-sabotage to get happy and stay that way. You’ll discover:

• The Power of Negative Thinking
• Three simple tools for getting your sh*t together
• How to spend less and save more
• Ways to manage anxiety, avoid avoidance, and conquer your fear of failure
• And tons of other awesome sh*t!

5. Glow Pops

Super-easy Superfood Recipes to Help You Look and Feel Your Best

If you like smoothies, you’ll love Glow Pops. Blogger Liz Moody takes your favorite treat to the next level with 35 nutrient-filled recipes that will make you glow from the inside out. They’re fast, flexible, and packed with superfoods to boost your brain power, clear your skin, rev your metabolism, and much more. Whether you like the classics—think Chocolate Fudge, Cookie Dough, and Neopolitan—or prefer more adventurous combinations like Turmeric Golden Milk, Avocado Chile Lime, and Strawberry Cardamom Rose Lassi, Glow Pops has a pop for every palate. It’s as easy as a whiz in the blender and a pour into molds. The hardest part is waiting for the pops to freeze!

6. The Wellness Workbook

For more than thirty years, John W. Travis, M.D., and Regina Sara Ryan have taught hundreds of thousands of people a practical whole-self approach to wellness and healthy living. Each chapter of the comprehensive WELLNESS WORKBOOK explores one of the twelve interconnected forms of energy that contribute to your overall health and vitality:

Self-Responsibility and Love, Breathing, Sensing, Eating, Moving, Feeling, Thinking, Playing and Working, Communicating, Sex,Finding Meaning,Transcending

From how you breathe to how you view the world, these twelve areas affect all aspects of your life: your disposition toward injury and illness, your relationships, your general level of happiness, and beyond. In an optimal state of wellness, all of your energies are in balance, and you are less prone to disease, stress, and other life-depleting factors. Using a self-assessment tool known as the Wellness Index, you’ll develop a clear picture of what areas in your life need attention.

Now in its third edition, the thoroughly updated and streamlined WELLNESS WORKBOOK provides hundreds of exercises and ideas to help you take control of your health and happiness.
• A classic text in the wellness field, thoroughly revised and updated, and streamlined for a more simple and practical presentation.
• Chapters cover self-responsibility and love, breathing, sensing, eating, moving, feeling, thinking, playing and working, communicating, sex, finding meaning, and transcending.
• Previous editions have sold more than 200,000 copies.

7. The Engine No. 2 Dietf

The Texas Fire-fighters 28 Day Save-Your-Life_Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away The Pounds

Lose weight, lower cholesterol, significantly reduce the risk of disease, and become physically fit–in just 4 weeks.

Professional athlete-turned-firefighter Rip Esselstyn is used to responding to emergencies. So, when he learned that some of his fellow Engine 2 firefighters in Austin, TX, were in dire physical condition-several had dangerously high cholesterol levels (the highest was 344!)-he sprang into action and created a life-saving plan for the firehouse. By following Rip’s program, everyone lost weight (some more than 20 lbs.), lowered their cholesterol (Mr. 344’s dropped to 196), and improved their overall health. Now, Rip outlines his proven plan in this book. With Rip as your expert coach and motivator, you’ll transform your body and lifestyle in a month. His plant-powered eating plan is based on a diet of whole foods, including whole grains, fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds. This invaluable guide features: **Dozens of easy, mouthwatering recipes-from pancakes to pizza, Tex-Mex favorites to knockout chocolate desserts-that will keep you looking forward to every bite **Pantry-stocking tips will take the panic out of inevitable cravings and on-the-fly meals **Guidelines on menu choices that will allow you to eat out, wherever and whenever you want **Rip’s simple, firefighter-inspired exercise program that will boost your metabolism and melt your fat away.

Medically approved, easy-to-follow, and amazingly effective, this diet is designed for anyone who wants to make heroic strides in his or her health, weight, and well-being-all without heroic effort.

8. First: What It Takes To Win

Physical Strength Can Only Take You So Far
Reigning CrossFit World Champion Rich Froning is “The Fittest Man on Earth.” He’s fast. He’s strong. And he’s incredibly disciplined. But it takes more than physical strength to compete and win at an elite level. It takes incredible mental and spiritual toughness as well. And it is the precise balance of all three that makes Rich Froning a champion.

In First, readers come alongside Rich as he trains for and competes in back-to-back-to-back CrossFit World Championships. Along the way, Rich shares invaluable training tips, motivational techniques, and spiritual insights that, in keeping with the CrossFit philosophy, will prepare you to respond to any real-life physical, mental and spiritual challenge.

9. You Can Expect A Miracle

201 Miracle Messages from A-Z!

This book is designed for you to find an uplifting message each day. Read the message several times during the day. The essence of the message will encourage and support you in moving forward in your life in a positive way. Originally I wrote these messages as my scripts to record from for a series of Miracle Messages for rural radio stations around Australia. However, several radio station listeners asked could they please purchase the Miracle Messages in book form. Writing these 201 messages was the most difficult part of the recording process. In order to communicate a clear and thought provoking idea, my message had to be to the point, interesting and something the listener could take immediate action on, right now. The topic range is extremely varied and covers aspects of personal life, relationships, family, business, work, mindset, motivation, inspiration, attitude and gratitude as well as hints and tips to make life simpler. My suggestion is that you keep your book beside your bed. Scan the table of contents each morning on waking and find a message that resonates with you and you believe will best encourage you in the day ahead. Read the message before rising, or as you eat your breakfast or enjoy your morning cup of tea or coffee. Plan to read your daily message at least once more before going to sleep in the evening. Spaced repetition is a major key for you in changing habits that are energy draining and life depleting, to give you new hope, better outcomes and enlivened wellbeing.